Symposium 18: Genetic control of pattern formation

(555-563)

555

Abstract not received

556

Immunolocalization of the wingless protein

in Drosophila melanogaster embryos. Marcel van den Heuvel and Reel Nusse Dept. of Molecular Biology, the Netherlands

Cancer Institute.

wingless is a segment polarity gene that is required for normal development of every segment of the embryo, int-l, the homolog in mouse, is also specifically expressed in the developing neural tissue in embryos. We made antibodies against the wingless protein that specifically localize the gene product in 15

stripes in the trunk region of the Droso- phila embryo and in regions in the head and

tail of the embryo. In the trunk region every posterior border of the parasegment is marked with the antibodies; double staining

with engrailed antibodies confirmed this. Using EM the protein can be seen in differ- ent organelles in the wingless expressing cells and in the extracellular matrix (in collaboration with Dr. P. Lawrence, }~C,

Cambridge, UK). The localization of the wingless protein

in the matrix and the morphology of the organlles suggest that the protein behaves as a paracrine signal. It seems likely that the protein will bind to a receptor on the

cell surface.

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